


never a clean break

by krashlyntome (bestthreemonths)



Series: frictionverse [10]
Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-03
Updated: 2016-12-03
Packaged: 2018-09-06 05:52:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8737351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bestthreemonths/pseuds/krashlyntome
Summary: Ashlyn thinks she has this whole parenting thing down pat, but sometimes teenage hormones make the job a lot harder.





	

**Author's Note:**

> These ficmas updates are happening alllll out of order, but enjoy anyway!!!!

One look at her wife when Ashlyn walks through the garage door to enter the kitchen tells her everything she needs to know. She’s muttering to herself as she divides whatever delicious-smelling meal she prepared for the family tonight onto plates, and she has one hand on her hip despite the obvious disadvantage to her process.

 

“Hi, beautiful,” Ashlyn says, kissing her on the cheek from behind. “Smells amazing.”

 

“Thanks,” Ali grumbles, not turning to face her. “It’s almost ready. The girls are just washing up.”

 

“Everything okay?” Ashlyn asks hesitantly.

 

Ali lets out a heavy sigh, setting down her serving spoon and turning around. “The drama queen is at it again.”

  
Ashlyn cringes. Mackenzie has been fifteen for almost four weeks now, and it’s shaping up to be the worst age yet. The little angel who wouldn’t dare slam a door without running downstairs to apologize now regularly tells her little sisters to “shut the hell up” and rolls her eyes at Ali and Ashlyn like it’s her job.

 

“She yelled at Emma for going into her room without permission even though I told Emma to put her laundry in her room because Mac wouldn’t come down and get it herself,” Ali starts, and Ashlyn can tell it’s only the tip of the iceberg. “I didn’t want to get involved, but I’m really sick of her bullshit.”

 

“Oh God,” Ashlyn groans. “What did you say?”

 

Ali glares at her. “I told her she could do her own laundry from now on and that she should stay in her room till she is ready to be a member of this family again.”

 

“And?”

 

“She locked her door and won’t come down for dinner because she apparently has been waiting for her chance to escape this hellhole for a while now. Her words.”

 

Ashlyn sighs and kisses Ali’s forehead, wrapping her arms around Ali’s shoulders. “Want me to try?”

 

“Be my guest,” Ali mumbles. “I don’t even care if she skips dinner, but I know she’ll get hungry right around the time I want to have sex with you to forget about this awful day, and considering she has to pass our door to sneak downstairs, I’d rather avoid that.”

 

“Me too,” Ashlyn laughs. “I’m happy to know I’m at least getting laid tonight.”

 

“I need it more than you after today,” Ali says. “We’ll talk about it after dinner.”

 

Ashlyn kisses her once more, this time on the lips, before braving the danger zone that is anywhere within twenty yards of Mackenzie when she’s pissed.

 

“Kiddo!” Ashlyn says cheerily, knocking on Mac’s door. “Let me in.”

 

“Go away,” Mac says in the exact opposite tone.

 

“Dude, I’m the cool one, remember?” Ashlyn asks. “I didn’t see you all day, I miss you.”

 

“Mom said to stay in my room because I’m not welcome in the family.”

 

Ashlyn rolls her eyes. “Mac, you know she didn’t mean that. Of course you’re welcome in the family. Your little sisters love you and just wish you wouldn’t yell at them.”

 

“Then they shouldn’t be so annoying.”

 

“Kenzie,” Ashlyn sighs, hoping the childhood nickname will soften her.

 

Mackenzie says nothing for a second, and Ashlyn thinks it might have worked. “Don’t call me that,” she says. “Nobody calls me that anymore. It’s a stupid nickname.”

 

“Georgia calls you that!” Ashlyn exclaims.

 

“Not anymore,” Mackenzie says.

 

Ashlyn pauses. Mackenzie and Georgia get in their fair share of arguments, and she and Ali do their very best not to get involved, knowing it’s what best friends do, but something about Mackenzie’s tone worries her.

 

“Okay,” Ashlyn says slowly. “Mac. Can we please talk? I really don’t want to put on my mom voice and call you young lady. You can talk as much shit about your mom as you want, and I won’t even tell her. I just want to talk to you.”

 

Mackenzie finally opens the door to reveal a disaster of a room and a puffy face that looks like it’s seen its fair share of tears today.

 

“Thank you,” Ashlyn says, closing the door behind her. “What’s up, kiddo? Did you and Georgia get into a fight?”

 

“I can’t talk to you about her, you’ll just take her side,” Mackenzie grumbles, sounding every bit her mother’s daughter.

 

“I will not,” Ashlyn says gently. Mackenzie’s words cut deep and hurt more than she thought they would. “You’re my kid, dude. I might not be your mom, but you’re mine. I love Georgia, of course I do, but I’m forever on your side. You and your mom and your sisters are all equal to me. That’s why I hate it so much when you guys fight.”

 

“I thought you hated it because my mom won’t have sex with you,” Mac deadpans.

 

“Nah, she’s hotter when she’s angry,” Ashlyn teases, enjoying every bit of the way Mac’s face scrounges in displeasure. “That one backfired on you, huh?”

 

“She has a boyfriend.”

 

“Your mom?” Ashlyn laughs. “News to me.”

 

“No, Georgia,” Mac says. “She went to this party last weekend that my dad wouldn’t let me go to and she made out with some boy. She didn’t even tell me, but she told all her stupid soccer friends, and now they’re boyfriend and girlfriend.”

 

“I know how hard it can be when your best friend doesn’t tell you that stuff,” Ashlyn says gently, trying to hide her surprise and dismay that Georgia hasn’t told her yet. “But I’m sure she didn’t mean to upset you.”

 

“I know she did,” Mac says, her lower lip wobbling. Ashlyn puts a hand on her back and rubs gentle circles between her shoulderblades. “She knows—she knows I like…” She can’t finish her sentence, she’s shaking so hard. “She kissed me. Or maybe I kissed her. I don’t even know anymore.”

 

Ashlyn’s eyes bulge, but she tries to rein in her reaction for Mackenzie’s sake. They rarely have big conversations about sexuality in their house, except when one of the twins asks questions. Having two moms is the norm for them, so it goes without saying that being gay is okay.

 

“When?” Ashlyn asks finally.

 

Mac laughs bitterly. “I don’t know, like six months ago,” she says. “And we’ve kissed a lot since then. Mostly just when we’re sleeping over and going to bed and… I don’t know. It’s not real. It’s like a game, one of us will say ‘wanna practice?’ and then we’ll just start kissing. But it doesn’t feel like practice.”

 

“No, of course not,” Ashlyn says softly, trying to keep a level head about the revelation that Mackenzie has been sleeping in the same bed as a girl she's also making out with.

 

“I told her I liked her last week,” Mackenzie sobs. “And she told me she doesn’t feel the same, that the kissing was just for practice, and that maybe we shouldn’t do it anymore.”

 

“Oh, babe,” Ashlyn sighs, pulling her into an embrace. “I know how much that hurts.”

 

“You don’t,” Mackenzie cries into Ashlyn’s shoulder. “I like her, and she doesn’t like me. You’ve always been so—”

 

“So what?” Ashlyn asks, kissing the top of Mac’s head. “Just because I’m with your mom now doesn’t mean it was always easy. I had my fair share of crushes on straight girls, and they crushed my heart and soul time and time again.”

 

Mackenzie clutches Ashlyn’s shirt, taking heaving breaths as she tries to calm down. “What if I ruined our whole friendship over that?” she cries. “She’s my best friend in the world. I can’t imagine just not being friends with her anymore.”

 

“That won’t happen,” Ashlyn assures her. “She’s probably a little confused right now. She probably doesn’t want to lead you on. It doesn’t mean you won’t be best friends still.”

 

“She barely talks to me,” Mac says. “We haven’t had a real conversation since then. I only knew about her dumbass boyfriend because Kate from the soccer team was teasing her about it in trig.”

 

Ashlyn doesn’t chastise her for her language because she knows she said way worse about her straight crushes from her teenage years. She holds Mackenzie tight, wishing more than anything she could take her pain away.

 

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Ashlyn whispers.

 

“Which part?”

 

“Any of it,” Ashlyn says. “The kissing, the thing last week…”

 

“The kissing was a secret,” Mac says. “She didn’t want anyone to know. And I didn’t want to tell Mom because I know she’ll tell Dad about me.”

 

“About you what?” Ashlyn asks. “Liking girls?”

 

Mackenzie nods.

 

“Sweetheart, you’re being raised by two women in one household,” she laughs. “I can’t guarantee your dad is going to be in love with the idea at first, but he’s going to love you the same. You’re his baby. You’re our baby. And we love you so much. Even if that means our family is going to be an estrogen-filled girls-only club for the foreseeable future.”

 

“But what if I like boys too?” Mackenzie asks. “I've just never tried.”

 

“Maybe you will,” Ashlyn says. “But you shouldn't have to try to like someone, okay? I want you to promise you'll never date someone just because you think you should.”

 

Mackenzie nods, but she doesn’t look convinced.

 

“I know this isn’t exactly what you want to hear, but I think you should tell your mom,” Ashlyn says, squeezing Mac’s hand. “It’s really hard for her to see you upset and not know what’s going on or how to help. And there’s nobody on this earth who’s better at giving advice than she is.”

 

~

 

Mac doesn’t come down for dinner, but Ashlyn assures Ali that it’s okay before focusing her attention on the twins, who aren’t great at using their inside voices, but at least they haven’t hit puberty yet.

 

After Ashlyn handles bathtime and bedtime for the twins so Ali can have some time to herself before bed, she heads back down the hall to her bedroom, where the door is open a crack and she can hear voices. She peeks in to see Mac sitting cross-legged on the bed, tears streaming down her face. She can’t see Ali’s face because it’s obscured in her embrace with Mackenzie, but she can hear her sniffling as well.

 

As she closes the gap in the door and turns to tiptoe back downstairs, she hears Mac’s voice.

 

“Ashlyn?”

  
Ashlyn cringes, freezing before she turns back around. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

 

“You’re not,” Mac says. “Come in. Please?”

 

Ashlyn obeys, padding across the room to join them on the bed. “Are you hungry? I can warm up your plate.”

 

“I already ate,” Mac says. “While you were giving the twins a bath.”

 

Ali wipes the tears from her face and Ashlyn reaches over to her out of instinct, squeezing her hand for comfort.

 

“So did you guys talk?” Ashlyn asks. Ali nods. “Good.”

 

“I’m going to go to bed,” Mac says, getting up. “I’m really sorry, Mommy.”

 

“I know you are, baby,” Ali says. “I’m proud of you.”

 

“I love you.” Mac gives Ali a hug and smiles over her shoulder at Ashlyn. “You too.”

 

Ashlyn waits till Mac is safely out of the room before she wraps an arm around Ali and pulls her in for a kiss.

 

“You’re a great mom, you know,” she says. Ali nods, sniffling.

 

“I hate that she didn’t want to tell me,” Ali says. “I told her I won’t tell Brent till she’s ready, and I’ll be there if she wants, but God, that part hurts.”

 

“I know,” Ashlyn agrees.

 

“And God, of course it’s Georgia,” Ali laughs. “Just when I thought our lives couldn’t be any more intertwined with that family.”

 

“I don’t know if I should talk to her or just let it be,” Ashlyn says. “I’m supposed to have lunch with her tomorrow, and I don’t know how I can even look at her knowing what I know now.”

 

Ali smiles. “You know her better than anyone,” she says. “As long as you aren’t coming at it from a place of taking Mac’s side or something, I think she’ll want to talk to you about it.”

 

“I’m pissed neither one of them told me. I mean, I get you, no offense, but me?”

 

“Rude,” Ali frowns. “You sounded excited about getting laid earlier, now it sounds like you don’t really care.”

 

“Oh, I care,” Ashlyn murmurs, leaning in for another kiss. “No more kid talk for the rest of the night.”

 

“Adult talk it is.”

 

~

 

Ashlyn texts Georgia first thing the next morning to ask if they can do lunch in her office, which she readily agrees to. Ashlyn orders their favorite Chinese takeout, and as soon as Georgia walks in, her eyes light up and her bag lunch from home is forgotten.

 

They talk while Georgia scarfs down her food in the limited time she has for lunch. It’s all small talk, but the easy kind, the kind where Georgia talks about her classes and Ashlyn talks about the twins and Ali, but this time Mackenzie’s name doesn’t come up.

 

Neither does Georgia’s alleged boyfriend.

 

“Do you and Mac have any fun plans this weekend?” Ashlyn asks as casually as she can.

 

Georgia looks down at her plate and pushes a piece of broccoli around with her fork. “Um, no,” she says.

 

“Is… something going on?” Ashlyn tries.

 

“What did she tell you?” Georgia demands, looking up.

 

“Nothing, G,” Ashlyn sighs, but she can’t lie to her. “She told me a little.”

 

“This is why I didn’t want to talk about it,” Georgia says, standing up from Ashlyn’s couch. “I know you’ll take her side.”

 

“Stop it,” Ashlyn says. “Sit down. There are no sides here. There are two girls I love an outrageous amount who I want to be happy.”

 

“She’s just mad because I hooked up with Carson at a party and didn’t tell her.”

 

“Who’s Carson?”

 

“This guy, I don’t know,” Georgia huffs. “All the girls on the soccer team have been saying we’d be cute together and trying to set us up, but I don’t like him really.”

 

“So why’d you hook up with him?”

 

“It was like, a tiny little makeout,” Georgia says.

 

“Yeah, but as far as I knew you were going to tell me when you had your first kiss,” Ashlyn replies quietly. “I thought that was our deal.”

 

“He wasn’t,” Georgia says, looking at the ceiling to disguise the tears. “I wanted to talk to you, but I didn’t know what to say.”

 

“Peachy,” Ashlyn sighs, getting up to sit next to her on the couch. “I’m not here to meddle. I just want to know about your life. And I don’t want you to be scared to tell me anything. Everything you tell me is between us. You know that.”

 

~

 

Naively, Ashlyn thinks everything will go back to normal after she talks to Georgia, but two months later Georgia still hasn't made her triumphant return back to the Krieger-Harris household and Mackenzie has been spending more time with her cheerleading friends. When Georgia has a U-15 camp in North Carolina, Ashlyn and Ali make a weekend trip to take the twins to one of her scrimmages, but Mackenzie opts to stay with her dad, not offering any explanation except a shrug and “it's Kayla’s birthday, so.”

 

Ali keeps a level head while Ashlyn panics about a future where Mac and Georgia can't be in the same place at the same time till one day she comes home and Ali slides a sheet of paper across the counter toward her, whispering “told you so” before pecking her on the lips.

 

“What am I looking at?” Ashlyn asks, narrowing her eyes. It's a permission slip for Mac’s class trip to New York City, an educational trip, but also a special treat for those with a GPA ranking them in the top 10 percent of sophomores.

 

“Look who she requested as roommates,” Ali says, pointing at the bottom of the page.

 

Mac had written Georgia’s name in her perfectly neat handwriting, along with two names she recognizes from Georgia’s Instagram.

 

“Did you ask her about it?” Ashlyn asks.

 

“Yeah, she rolled her eyes,” Ali says. “Apparently at the meeting for the trip none of Mac’s friends were there, so Georgia asked her if she wanted to sit with them, and they decided to room together too. She was like ‘Mom, it’s not a big deal, we’re friends, whatever.’ So don’t say anything to her.”

 

“Yeah, yeah,” Ashlyn agrees, kissing Ali’s temple. She can’t help but grin at the thought of Georgia doing that for Mac, but also the thought of the girls becoming friends again. “I’m going to change, then I’ll be down to help with dinner.”

 

“Wait!” Ali exclaims. Ashlyn turns around, raising an eyebrow. “Say it.”

 

“Say what?” Ashlyn asks, playing stupid. Ali narrows her eyes. “Fine,” she groans. “You were right.”


End file.
